{"id":39014,"date":"2025-05-15T16:03:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T22:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39014"},"modified":"2025-05-16T08:50:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T14:50:58","slug":"state-budget-package-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39014","title":{"rendered":"State budget package approved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave final approval May 15 to six components of the state\u2019s $11 billion, two-year budget package.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Robert Clements<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Appropriations Committee\u2019s budget package represents a 0.9% increase in state expenditures over the next two fiscal years and closes a roughly $260 million projected deficit.<\/p>\n

Among the measures passed was LB261, the mainline budget bill that contains funding for state aid and operations. The measure includes provisions of the following bills:
\n\u2022 LB55, sponsored by Adams Sen. Myron Dorn, which appropriates $1.5 million from the Hospital Quality Assurance and Access Assessment Fund to the state Department of Health and Human Services for reimbursement to certain mental health providers;
\n\u2022 LB173, sponsored by Lincoln Sen. Jason Prokop, which appropriates $5 million in general funds for each of the next two fiscal years to aid community colleges for dual enrollment purposes;
\n\u2022 LB505, introduced by Prokop, which appropriates $10 million in TANF funds in FY2025-26 for grants to nonprofits to provide food assistance;
\n\u2022 LB580, introduced by Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, which reappropriates funds in the Lead Service Line Cash Fund for grants to metropolitan utilities districts for lead service line replacements; and
\n\u2022 LB581, also sponsored by Cavanaugh, which appropriates $500,000 in FY2025-26 from the Health Care Cash Fund for grants to a nonprofit entity for construction costs related to a new facility.<\/p>\n

LB261 passed on a vote of 37-11.<\/p>\n

Also approved was LB264, which provides for fund transfers, changes provisions governing the administration and use of funds and repeals previous expansions to aid and incentive programs.<\/p>\n

The measure, passed on a 35-13 vote, includes $216 million in transfers to the state\u2019s General Fund from state agency cash funds and $147 million from the Cash Reserve Fund. The bill leaves approximately $684 million in the state\u2019s so-called \u201crainy day fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also approved were:
\n\u2022 LB260, which makes adjustments to appropriations in the current fiscal year, on a 41-7 vote;
\n\u2022 LB262, which appropriates funds for the $12,000 annual salaries of state senators, on a 40-9 vote;
\n\u2022 LB263, which appropriates funds for salaries of constitutional officers, on a 42-7 vote; and
\n\u2022 LB534, which provides for payment of claims against the state, on a 49-0 vote.<\/p>\n

All of the measures take effect immediately.<\/p>\n

The governor has five calendar days, excluding Sunday, to sign, veto or line-item veto appropriations within the budget bills.<\/p>\n

If budget bills are returned to the Legislature with line-item vetoes, the Appropriations Committee must report on the fiscal impact of the vetoes within one day and may offer a motion to override any or all of them. Thirty votes are required to override a veto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave final approval May 15 to six components of the state\u2019s $11 billion, two-year budget package.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[240],"class_list":["post-39014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appropriations","tag-sen-robert-clements"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/UpdateBlogPhoto-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39014"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39021,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39014\/revisions\/39021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}